Ahead of his final Test match, Angelo Mathews became the latest voice to sound the alarm around the lack of Test cricket for nations outside of India, England and Australia. Sri Lanka will be playing just four Tests in 2025 - their lowest number of Tests in a calendar year since 2013, not counting a Covid-curtailed 2020. If you look at the 2023-25 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, an even bleaker picture begins to emerge.

In the previous cycle, each of Australia, India and England played at least 19 WTC Tests each over a two-year period. Champions South Africa, for instance, played just 13. In the upcoming cycle, Australia are slated for 22 Tests, England 21, and 18 for India. Sri Lanka are set to play even fewer than they did in the previous cycle, with 12 Tests over the course of six two-Test series - joint lowest with Bangladesh. 

"I think it's quite sad to be honest," Mathews said. "I mean, the younger generation are urging for more Test cricket. Test cricket is obviously the pinnacle of cricket. We all should push for more Tests. These guys are so enthusiastic about Test cricket. "I feel there has to be a minimum of 10 matches at least [in a year]. Teams like England, India or Australia are playing 15-plus games a year. Why can't we play? We can.

If we keep pushing, I mean, we have to. We have won World Cups. We have done so much for cricket as a nation, and we deserve to play Test cricket, just like Australia, India and England." Mathews' gripes aren't new. Sri Lanka Test captain Dhananjaya de Silva banged the drum earlier this year ahead of their two-Test series against Australia.

But it's notable that a player with 118 Tests under his belt speaks up, after all, how many more Sri Lankans will realistically have the opportunity of matching that milestone? Even the timing of his retirement was, in part, impacted by the lack of Tests scheduled for Sri Lanka. While retirement was always on the cards for the now 38-year-old, particularly with it being the start of a new WTC cycle, the decision to play just the first Test was a decision borne in many ways out of circumstance. 

"I played my 100th Test in Galle, so I thought I'd say goodbye in Galle. But the main reason was because we don't have any games coming up, at least for now. After this, we'll be having our next assignment in Test cricket after a year's time, that is a very long wait," explained Mathews. 

"I thought it's good to give an opportunity to whoever is going to replace me in the second Test, because he's not going to get an opportunity till the next year (laughs). And in that year, you don't know what what's going to happen. So I thought I'd just play one game and then try and give an opportunity to the other guy who's replacing me in the second Test."

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)